Copycat
by mustardgirl1128
Summary: Oneshot. "I want you to find Ginny Weasley." Dennis Creevey does everything Colin does. :Mild Dennis/Ginny::Colin/Ginny:


A/N: The following is for the HalfBaked Challenge at the HPFCF. Sorry I haven't been around/updating much. Idk if I'll be able to in the near future, but I'm trying!

* * *

Dennis Creevey picks up on everything his brother does.

(_If you're reading this, I'm dead.)_

He carries around a camera. (He never uses it.)

_(I hope you won't wallow for long. I'm not worth it.)_

He wears his tie very loose, but not in a loose-and-casual way. More like a loose-because-I'm-trying way. (But Colin has the same way about him, so in the end, it's alright.)

_(I know this is hard for you to accept, little brother, but try, please. For Mum and Dad's sakes.)_

He sends anonymous bouquets to girls he likes, but only after Colin outgrows it. None of the girls ever find out there from him – he's too much of a coward. (Colin got a girlfriend out of the deal.)

_(I have to ask you to do me a large favor. Only after I'm dead, okay? If for some reason I'm still alive while you read this, STOP READING.)_

He trails after a person of his choice – that person is Cedric Diggory. (Colin followed Harry around for five years. Dennis only got one year.)

_(There's a confession I've got to make. Please understand that this is hard for me to tell people. Well – you aren't exactly _people_. You're my brother. That's different.)_

The biggest thing he ever did to copy his brother was done unwittingly. He fell in love with Ginny Weasley. (It was the hair, probably, that drew him. It was the personality that drew Colin.)

_(Anyway, I want you to find Ginny Weasley. I want you to tell her that I love her, that I always have and always will. Tell her not to be alarmed, that I never ever expected anything in return. Just I wanted her to know, and Dennis, I want you to tell her.)_

After he first saw her, his first year, when she was a third year with his brother, he was startled to find that he had an interest in a _girl_. (Apparently Colin felt differently.)

_(She's the only one I've ever been interested in – since second year! I wasn't very surprised to find that I had feelings for someone. I mean, it happens to everyone.)_

All he ever wanted was acknowledgment from her. A nod, a smile – something small. (Colin got loads of smiles from her. He'd always rush to help her, and she'd give him an award-winning grin. Dennis should have seen the signs.)

_(We barely ever talked, but I knew she was smart. I also knew she had no interest in me.)_

Everyone knew that Ginny was in love with Harry Potter. Everyone, even the Creevey brothers. No one was fooled when she went through that period of dating a guy-a-month. (He never gave up, which was where he and his brother differed.)

_(I decided it was a lost cause in fifth year, mostly because she was dating Harry, my _idol_, and what could I do about it? But that didn't change my feelings for her. Not a bit.)_

He was convinced that they'd break up sooner or later – but he didn't get to find out. (He and Colin ran, and by the time they found out what was happening with Ginny, they were more concerned with the fate of the Wizarding world than with how pretty she was at sixteen.)

_(I remember being so worried about her, the whole time we were on the run – that is, till real news occupied my mind. Harry – missing. Hogwarts – a torture school. How I wanted to see her again – to see anyone but the animals again! Maybe that's why I'm going back tonight.)_

Dennis Creevey did not get the chance to copy his brother, at the time when it was most important. (He left, like a good boy, and went back to his parents' house. He didn't realize that Colin was gone for at least an hour, and then there was no way he could get back through the gates of Hogwarts without getting killed.)

_(I'm going back to save Harry, Dennis. To make your children's lives safe. To see Ginny. To fight. To prove myself. And I guess I died in the process. I hope I killed or maimed a few of them before then.)_

He was a wreck. For days after, he blamed himself, told himself he was _so stupid_, and then he found the letter. (Colin's handwriting was shaky, but he was facing death with a cool demeanor.)

_(I'm not really afraid to die for the people I love. My regrets are many, but mostly just that I will never, ever, ever see you and Mum and Dad again. Tell them both that I love them more than anything, that the Wizarding world _is_ good. Don't let them tell you not to go back, Dennis. You _have_ to go back. I died for you to go back.)_

He later learned the charm that Colin had put on the letter – complicated, to make it appear on his brother's bed in a week. He'd disable the charm if he was still alive. (Dennis copied that charm, used it many a time. He never stopped copying his brother.)

_(So please, just do this for me, little brother.)_

He found Ginny, at Hogwarts, a week and a half after the Battle. Her brother had died. She had red-rimmed eyes, and she looked like she hadn't smiled in a year. (What would Colin have done? Comforted her, probably. But Dennis was unable to. He awkwardly said, "I've got something to tell you.")

_(I love you.)_

And as he said those words, those fateful three words – "Colin loved you," – they both broke down simultaneously. He handed Ginny the note, mutely, and she began to sob harder and harder, salting the page with her tears. (He fingered the original copy, still in his pocket, as it had been when he first read it.)

_(You mean everything to me, Dennis. I hope you know that.)_

Ginny hugged him, crying and crying, and he'd remember that day on the anniversary of the Battle, when he got together with a large group of people and Ginny shouted, "To brothers!" and everyone in the whole room began to cry, as one mourning body. (That last thing was something he couldn't copy. He couldn't follow his brother into death.)

_(Love, Colin)_


End file.
